Wow you guys are fast...
I've heard similar things about the Painkiller... Here' my post from another thread with different results that you experienced.
My first BKP was a Cold Sweat that I had installed on a Schecter Omen (basswood) guitar that was stolen a couple of months back... I originally had a SD JB in the bridge and that pickup sounded like it had the lows and the highs cut off completely... nothing but mids... I was always fighting with it to get a decent tone out of it. Then I purchased a BKP CS (upon Nick and Tim's recommendation) and that sucker had tons of clean mids and low end... it opened up my sound a lot! Only problem was that it had very little in the highs... so my clean parts sounded very dark. High gain was awesome...
Well, I've always thought that my ideal pickup would have some of the characteristics of a pickup that is in the neck position. I love the thick, middy clean attack that you get from a SD Jazz in the neck position... or maybe that's what you get out of any pickup in the neck position. Well, I purchased a couple of Ibanez SZ320 guitars and was recommended to get a BKP Painkiller for it's mahogany body... well, I wasn't sure because I didn't want to have my sound be anywhere to what the BKP website said the PK sounded like ("Typically British in voice"). I vaguely remember not ever liking the Judas Priest's tone at all... very shrill. Anyhow, both Nick and Tim had the same recommendation on the CS for my stolen guitar and the PK for my newly acquired guitar(s). So I went ahead and had the PK installed after a long wait... (why do they take so long to get? The CS took 2 months to get and the PK took a little over a month) Anyhow, during my first practice my jaw just dropped at how clean everything sounded with the Painkiller. I must say that (for me) the PK may be the perfect bridge pickup because it gives me the aggressive bark of a pickup in the neck position sound but in the bridge position! It has the clearest highs and mids that I've ever heard on any of my guitars. I have an Axe-fx and when I was testing the BKP PK it just opened up amp sims that I've never liked (or gave a second look at) in the past. It's as if it allows the "amp's" true nature to come out. Crazy... my only gripe with the PK is that it really needs more low end to be the perfect pickup (for my setup). But I figure I can just crank the low end on the amp sim and/or pop in an EQ block and adjust to taste. All in all, I'm very happy with the Painkiller... I was just very weary that it would make me sound like Judas Priest... and it didn't.
